to make a background lighter, go to
adjust > hew & saturation.
then there is a lightness/darkness slider thingy, and you play with that.

to make it transparent, select the area u want, then copy it to another layer (copy then paste) and it should be on another layer, you then select the transparence bar thingy, in you layers menu and change it, (you may need to delete the original background.

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